Cuzco

As many a Peruvian traveler can tell you, climbing Machu Picchu is easy, especially if you take one of those tourist buses that do most of the work. It's embracing Cuzco that can be hard. Cuzco (often spelled Cusco) usually is the Peruvian city you fly into before catching the train through the Sacred Valley to those famous mountaintop ruins at Machu Picchu. But Cuzco is much more than a gateway. In the 15th century, it was the capital of the Incan empire, a wealthy city whose stone buildings, which still form the skeleton of the city, were chiseled and placed with astounding precision.

A powerful earthquake rocked the tourist city of Cuzco on Saturday, knocking down walls and sending hundreds of people running into the streets. Civil Defense authorities said initial reports indicated that no one was injured. A spokesman for the National Geophysics Institute said the quake registered 6.1 on the Richter scale and was centered 30 miles southeast of Cuzco in the Andes mountains. Cuzco, in southern Peru, is the former capital of the Inca empire.

As many a Peruvian traveler can tell you, climbing Machu Picchu is easy, especially if you take one of those tourist buses that do most of the work. It's embracing Cuzco that can be hard. Cuzco (often spelled Cusco) usually is the Peruvian city you fly into before catching the train through the Sacred Valley to those famous mountaintop ruins at Machu Picchu. But Cuzco is much more than a gateway. In the 15th century, it was the capital of the Incan empire, a wealthy city whose stone buildings, which still form the skeleton of the city, were chiseled and placed with astounding precision.

LIMA, Peru -- Tourist-train service to the mountaintop Inca ruins at Machu Picchu was halted Wednesday by demonstrators who set up roadblocks around Cuzco to protest plans to privatize part of a state-owned electric utility. Soledad Caparo, a spokeswoman for Perurail, said the company plans to resume the five-hour rail excursions today, and also restore service between Cuzco and the city of Puno. Cuzco Workers' Federation leader Nazario Arellano said his group, which organized the 24-hour strike, opposes government plans to sell 10 percent of the Machu Picchu Electricity Co. on the Lima stock exchange.

A bus tumbled off a cliff near the tourist resort of Cuzco in the Andes mountains early Friday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 34, police said. The accident occurred on a road between Cuzco and Quillabamba, 350 miles southeast of Lima. It was the fifth in a rash of accidents that has left 79 dead and 130 injured in the past eight days.

An earthquake Saturday jolted the ancient Incan city of Cuzco, killing five people and sending panicked residents racing from crumbling homes into the streets.The earthquake, registering 5.5 on the Richter scale, struck at 3:15 p.m., and an aftershock hit 10 minutes later.Peru's state Andina news agency reported five people were killed. At least 30 people were injured.Radio reports in Lima said a large municipal water tank in the eastern San Geronimo district of Cuzco burst and flooded streets.

Josh Bernstein is host of Discovery Channel's Into the Unknown program. A 37-year-old New Yorker, one of his favorite places is Cuzco, in Peru's southern mountains. Question: What's special about Cuzco? Answer: It's one of my favorite places in the world, probably because of its blend of culture and beauty. The Incan empire picked it as its capital for a reason -- its landscape is spectacular. At 10,000 feet, it certainly takes some adjusting to the altitude. It's like any mountain town in North America -- like Telluride, Colo.

LIMA, Peru -- Vandals have spray-painted a 12-sided stone popular with tourists in the former Inca capital of Cuzco -- the second time the rock has been defaced in two months, police said Sunday. The vandals used golden spray paint to mark the stone overnight with a teenage ganglike insignia that police said they have so far been unable to identify. "This is beginning to turn itself into some sort of a custom," government cultural director Luis Guillermo Lumbreras told Radioprogramas del Peru from Cuzco, high in the Andes.

LIMA, Peru -- Peru's National Institute of Culture is seeking to oust families it says are squatting on public land near the ruins of Sacsahuaman, the once-mighty fortification that protected the former Incan capital of Cuzco, officials said Friday. Sacsahuaman's towering walls are a major attraction in Cuzco, nestled high in the Andes approximately 350 miles southeast of Lima. To fix the problem, the cultural institute plans to present a bill before Congress that would authorize the government to pay families to leave about 30 illegal homes and shops built on park land.

Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and the floating islands of the Uros tribe are just some of the reasons Peru makes a picture-perfect vacation destination. Other hot attractions include the world-famous Nazca Lines, the ruins at Pachacamac and the Peruvian National Museum. While it can be tempting to overspend at such a sought-after tourist destination, there are in fact several ways to pinch pennies in Peru. Here are some of my top tips. Accommodations: Numerous boutique hotels and hostel hybrids are available in Peru at affordable rates.

While the health-care debate continues to rage in this country, I've found a helpful little solution. I always see the dentist when overseas. This past summer, I was in the Peruvian Andes. I fell in love with the city of Cuzco, with its ancient, winding streets and its sheer beauty and endless sense of history. One old building was built by the Spanish in the mid-1500s on top of Inca ruins from 1400. While exploring the courtyard, I noticed a dental office. I was due for a checkup, so I stopped in. The dentist wanted two sessions to clean my teeth.

Josh Bernstein is host of Discovery Channel's Into the Unknown program. A 37-year-old New Yorker, one of his favorite places is Cuzco, in Peru's southern mountains. Question: What's special about Cuzco? Answer: It's one of my favorite places in the world, probably because of its blend of culture and beauty. The Incan empire picked it as its capital for a reason -- its landscape is spectacular. At 10,000 feet, it certainly takes some adjusting to the altitude. It's like any mountain town in North America -- like Telluride, Colo.

LIMA, Peru -- Andean Indian organizations are seeking to create a regional coordinating group to push their political agenda with a single voice, at a meeting in Peru's ancient Inca capital of Cuzco. Indian leaders and representatives will discuss the state of indigenous populations throughout the Andean region today through Monday. Disenfranchised Andean Indians have increased their political power in recent years, especially in Bolivia, where Evo Morales was elected the country's first Indian president in December.

LIMA, Peru -- Two passenger buses crashed head-on in Peru's southern Andes, killing 14 people, police said Wednesday. The accident, which also left 49 injured, occurred late Tuesday night on a highway between the southern cities of Cuzco and Puno.

LIMA, Peru -- Two passenger buses crashed head-on in Peru's southern Andes, killing 14 people, police said Wednesday. The accident, which also left 49 injured, occurred late Tuesday night on a highway between the southern cities of Cuzco and Puno.

BRIDGE COLLAPSES, 15 DIE. Fifteen people were killed when a bridge in southern Peru collapsed, tipping a truck loaded with peasants and maize into rain-swollen waters, police said. They said the bridge over the Torcoma River between Cuzco and Puno was reopened hours before the collapse Friday after undergoing two months of repairs.

LIMA, Peru -- Vandals have spray-painted a 12-sided stone popular with tourists in the former Inca capital of Cuzco -- the second time the rock has been defaced in two months, police said Sunday. The vandals used golden spray paint to mark the stone overnight with a teenage ganglike insignia that police said they have so far been unable to identify. "This is beginning to turn itself into some sort of a custom," government cultural director Luis Guillermo Lumbreras told Radioprogramas del Peru from Cuzco, high in the Andes.

LIMA, Peru -- Nearly 100 old books -- including two priceless colonial-era tomes about Spanish conquistadors and the colonization of the Incas -- are missing from a public library in the former Incan capital of Cuzco, officials said Wednesday. The books, including a first edition of La Florida del Inca, by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, printed in 1605, apparently were stolen four years ago during library renovations, officials said. The 400-year-old copy of La Florida chronicles the adventures of the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in what is now Florida, as recounted by one of his soldiers.